A lung cancer pill drastically cuts the risk of death after surgery

A once-daily pill halved people’s risk of dying from a common lung cancer when they took the drug after tumour-removal surgery, new trial data shows

- JENNIFER NALEWICKI

Made by the biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, Tagrisso, also known as osimertinib, reduced the five-year risk of death in lung cancer patients by 51 per cent. The study was the result of a 682-patient trial that included participants diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), one of two main types of primary lung cancer. All patients also had a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, which codes for a protein found on the surfaces of cells. EGFR mutations can boost cancer’s ability to grow and spread, raising patients’ risk of cancer recurrence post-treatment.